Terasaki Kōgyō
Mountains in Early Spring1917

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Japan: Living Landscapes, Flowing Waters

No image

Artist or Maker: Terasaki Kōgyō
Japan, 1866-1919
Title: Mountains in Early Spring
Date Made: 1917
Period: Taishō period (1912-1926)
Medium: Pair of six-panel screens; ink, mineral pigments, and shell white pigment (gofun) on gold-backed silk
Dimensions: Mount (each): 67 1/2 × 147 in. (171.45 × 373.38 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Jeffery Cline and William Knospe, Kagedo Japanese Art
Accession Number: M.2024.200.4.1-.2
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Japanese Art
Curatorial Notes: Japanese-style painting, known as nihonga, is the modern invention of a new tradition intended to reinstate Japan’s artistic and cultural identity in the wake of the country’s opening to the outside. Terazaki Kōgyō’s pair of screens are exemplary nihonga works. They depict an early spring vista of mountain peaks amid rolling clouds. The subject, format, and materials—ink, mineral pigments, and clamshell gesso on screen-formatted silk—are conventional. However, certain pictorial elements, such as the snow in the lower right corner, are expressly simplified or even abstracted, despite the fact that Kōgyō was fully capable of producing detailed, naturalistic images. Furthermore, the silk ground is painted with gold from the backside, a technique called urahaku, which creates a subdued shimmering effect indicative of soft sunlight over slopes. As a result, the work conveys a feeling of calmness yet magnificence; when open flat, each screen measures approximately 5 x 24 feet. Large paintings like this became preferred for the official salon exhibition, another practice introduced to institutionalize art in the new modern state. Still, one might feel surrounded or even hugged by hills and spring clouds, especially when viewing the work while sitting on the floor, the traditional position from which to experience paintings such as this.

2024

Terasaki Kōgyō
Mountains in Early Spring1917

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Japan: Living Landscapes, Flowing Waters

No image

Artist or Maker: Terasaki Kōgyō
Japan, 1866-1919
Title: Mountains in Early Spring
Date Made: 1917
Period: Taishō period (1912-1926)
Medium: Pair of six-panel screens; ink, mineral pigments, and shell white pigment (gofun) on gold-backed silk
Dimensions: Mount (each): 67 1/2 × 147 in. (171.45 × 373.38 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Jeffery Cline and William Knospe, Kagedo Japanese Art
Accession Number: M.2024.200.4.1-.2
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Japanese Art
Curatorial Notes: Japanese-style painting, known as nihonga, is the modern invention of a new tradition intended to reinstate Japan’s artistic and cultural identity in the wake of the country’s opening to the outside. Terazaki Kōgyō’s pair of screens are exemplary nihonga works. They depict an early spring vista of mountain peaks amid rolling clouds. The subject, format, and materials—ink, mineral pigments, and clamshell gesso on screen-formatted silk—are conventional. However, certain pictorial elements, such as the snow in the lower right corner, are expressly simplified or even abstracted, despite the fact that Kōgyō was fully capable of producing detailed, naturalistic images. Furthermore, the silk ground is painted with gold from the backside, a technique called urahaku, which creates a subdued shimmering effect indicative of soft sunlight over slopes. As a result, the work conveys a feeling of calmness yet magnificence; when open flat, each screen measures approximately 5 x 24 feet. Large paintings like this became preferred for the official salon exhibition, another practice introduced to institutionalize art in the new modern state. Still, one might feel surrounded or even hugged by hills and spring clouds, especially when viewing the work while sitting on the floor, the traditional position from which to experience paintings such as this.

2024